John Solomon
@jsolomonreports
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Jan 10, 2023, 2:06 PM
https://truthsocial.com/@jsolomonreports/posts/109667182465574539
https://rumble.com/v24sqx6-just-the-news-no-noise-with-john-solomon-and-amanda-head-january-10-2023.html
NASA’s TESS Discovers Planetary System’s Second Earth-Size World
Jan 10, 2023
Using data from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, scientists have identified an Earth-size world, called TOI 700 e, orbiting within the habitable zone of its star – the range of distances where liquid water could occur on a planet’s surface. The world is 95% Earth’s size and likely rocky.
Astronomers previously discovered three planets in this system, called TOI 700 b, c, and d. Planet d also orbits in the habitable zone. But scientists needed an additional year of TESS observations to discover TOI 700 e.
“This is one of only a few systems with multiple, small, habitable-zone planets that we know of,” said Emily Gilbert, a postdoctoral fellow at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California who led the work. “That makes the TOI 700 system an exciting prospect for additional follow up. Planet e is about 10% smaller than planet d, so the system also shows how additional TESS observations help us find smaller and smaller worlds.”
Gilbert presented the result on behalf of her team at the 241st meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Seattle. A paper about the newly discovered planet was accepted by The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
TOI 700 is a small, cool M dwarf star located around 100 light-years away in the southern constellation Dorado. In 2020, Gilbert and others announced the discovery of the Earth-size, habitable-zone planet d, which is on a 37-day orbit, along with two other worlds.
The innermost planet, TOI 700 b, is about 90% Earth’s size and orbits the star every 10 days. TOI 700 c is over 2.5 times bigger than Earth and completes an orbit every 16 days. The planets are probably tidally locked, which means they spin only once per orbit such that one side always faces the star, just as one side of the Moon is always turned toward Earth.
TESS monitors large swaths of the sky, called sectors, for approximately 27 days at a time. These long stares allow the satellite to track changes in stellar brightness caused by a planet crossing in front of its star from our perspective, an event called a transit. The mission used this strategy to observe the southern sky starting in 2018, before turning to the northern sky. In 2020, it returned to the southern sky for additional observations. The extra year of data allowed the team to refine the original planet sizes, which are about 10% smaller than initial calculations.
“If the star was a little closer or the planet a little bigger, we might have been able to spot TOI 700 e in the first year of TESS data,” said Ben Hord, a doctoral candidate at the University of Maryland, College Park and a graduate researcher at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “But the signal was so faint that we needed the additional year of transit observations to identify it.”
TOI 700 e, which may also be tidally locked, takes 28 days to orbit its star, placing planet e between planets c and d in the so-called optimistic habitable zone.
Scientists define the optimistic habitable zone as the range of distances from a star where liquid surface water could be present at some point in a planet’s history. This area extends to either side of the conservative habitable zone, the range where researchers hypothesize liquid water could exist over most of the planet’s lifetime. TOI 700 d orbits in this region.
Finding other systems with Earth-size worlds in this region helps planetary scientists learn more about the history of our own solar system.
Follow-up study of the TOI 700 system with space- and ground-based observatories is ongoing, Gilbert said, and may yield further insights into this rare system.
“TESS just completed its second year of northern sky observations,” said Allison Youngblood, a research astrophysicist and the TESS deputy project scientist at Goddard. “We’re looking forward to the other exciting discoveries hidden in the mission’s treasure trove of data.”
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-s-tess-discovers-planetary-system-s-second-earth-size-world
Not only yes, but fuck yes
China issues gold and silver coins to mark space station completion
January 9, 2023 — China's first space station is now complete in Earth orbit and on a new set of coins.
The People's Bank of China on Monday (Jan. 9) issued gold and silver coins in celebration of the completion of the Chinese space station. The orbital complex, which was first proposed in 1992, was finished last year with the addition of two science laboratories to an earlier launched core module.
The 0.1-oz (3-gram) gold commemorative coin features the T-shaped Tiangong ("Heavenly Palace") on its reverse. The space station is shown with both Shenzhou crew spacecraft and Tianzhou cargo vehicles docked at either end of the Tianhe ("Harmony of the Heavens") core module.
The engraved rendering also captures the large solar arrays extending from the Wentian and Mengtian laboratory cabin modules and a Chinese taikonaut wearing a Feitian spacesuit at the end of the space station's robotic arm.
The reverse design is completed with the logo of the Chinese Manned Spaceflight Project (CMS), the words "China Space Station" (in Chinese) and denomination, 50 yuan (about $7.40 U.S.). The 0.7-inch (18 mm) 24-karat gold coin is limited to 20,000 pieces.
The 1-oz (30-gram) silver coin depicts two taikonauts working outside of the space station. One of the spacewalkers is mounted to the end of the robotic arm, while the other is half out of an airlock. Unlike the gold coin, the silver commemorative is partially colored, with the backdrop of space being rendered in luminescent purple, pink, blue and green colors.
To the left of the extravehicular scene are small representations of the "three-step" development strategy, or phases, that China's space program went through to bring its human spaceflight program to where it is now. The three steps shown are the launch of crewed spacecraft, the deployment of a single-module laboratories and, finally, the multi-module space station as it exists today.
Like the gold coin, the silver's reverse also displays the CMS logo, "China Space Station" (in Chinese) and denomination, 10 yuan (about $1.50 U.S.). The 1.5-inch (40-mm) commemorative is limited to a maximum circulation of 50,000 pieces.
Both the gold and silver coins share a common obverse or front design featuring the emblem of the People's Republic of China, as well as the country (China) and year of issue. (Although the coins are being released in 2023, they are dated for 2022, the year the space station was declared complete.)
The China Space Station gold and silver commemorative coins were minted by Shenzhen Guobao Mint Co., Ltd. and will be distributed by the China Gold Coin Corporation. Sale details, including pricing for the two coins, are scheduled to be released on Wednesday (Jan. 11) on the China Gold Coin Network website.
The People's Bank of China last issued a similar set of gold and silver coins in 2021 to mark the success of Tianwen-1, China's first mission to orbit and land on Mars. China also celebrated the completion of its space station with set of four postage stamps released by China Post on Dec. 25, 2022. The commemoratives, titled "China's Space Station," feature illustrations of the Long March 5B heavy-lift rocket, icons of different science disciplines, two taikonauts on a spacewalk and the completed space station.
The stamps, which are expected to be available for six months, carry a face value of 1.20 yuan (about 20 cents U.S.) and are sold as a set for 5.40 yuan (about 80 cents U.S.). They are limited to 8 million sets and 1.1 million sheetlets.
http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-010923a-china-space-station-coins.html